Retired NATO chief James Stavridis believes the pace of Pyongyang's weapons development programme means tubby despot Kim Jong Un has been given outside help in his bid to create world-ending nuclear missiles

By Jacob Dirnhuber

4th December 2017,12:23 pm

Updated: 4th December 2017,5:04 pm

A FORMER NATO chief has claimed that China, Russia, and Iran could be helping tubby despot Kim Jong Un in his bid to create world-ending nuclear missiles.

He said: “You’ve got to think that at least part of it is coming from either China or Russia.

“I have no evidence of that, but the idea that [Kim] would simply be developing this on an indigenous basis within his own population of scientists simply seems unlikely given how fast it’s moving.

“It could also be cooperation between Iran and North Korea, which we do know has occurred in this nuclear space. It’s fair to say there is some level of outside engagement that has been helpful to [Kim’s] program.”

The four-star Admiral added that China will have to decide whether it is going to stand by or against North Korea as tensions escalate.

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He added: “We’re going to need to put more pressure on them. There’s about a 10 percent chance” of a war.

Stavridis also claimed that President Trump has repeatedly undermined Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s attempt to negotiate with Pyongyang.

He said: “Every time Secretary Tillerson tries to talk about diplomacy in North Korea, for example, he faces a tweet from his boss, the President, saying, ‘We are not going to use diplomacy to solve this. Diplomacy is a waste of time.'”